Debate held last week in São Paulo by Intermodal South America, an event for the logistics, cargo transport, intralogistics and foreign trade sector, brought together the General Director of the National Waterway Transport Agency (ANTAQ), Eduardo Nery, O general director of the National Land Transportation Agency (ANTT), Rafael Vitale, and the president of the Brazilian Logistics Institute (IBL), Ricardo Molitzas, to detail the investments currently being made in the transport infrastructure scenario.
ANTAQ’s CEO, Eduardo Nery, spoke about the current status of auctions and concessions for port areas throughout Brazil. According to him, the government is closing the year with nine areas to be auctioned and 19 areas are already planned for next year, including the concession of the port of Paranaguá, a process that is awaiting approval by the Federal Court of Auditors. “There is an investment of over R$1 billion and over R$2.5 billion in operating expenses. Another area that deserves to be highlighted is the partial concession of the port of Itajaí, where a concession for waterway access will be made,” he said.
Nery also mentioned other areas that are the focus of investments, such as the container terminal at the port of Mucuripe, in Ceará. “This is a successful example of a transition contract, an instrument provided for in the agency’s resolution, which was intended precisely to maintain cargo service while the bidding process was completed. Today, we have around 40 transition contracts in progress. Our forecast is that between 2024 and 2025, we will have invested almost R$13 billion, not including TUPs (private-use terminals), which are also extremely important within this format,” he explained.
Regarding TUPs, which account for 2/3 of the cargo handled in national ports alone, Nery reported that authorizations are ongoing. “The idea is to move forward in simplifying the authorization processes. ANTAQ and the Ministry of Ports and Airports are taking a series of measures to simplify this process from a bureaucratic standpoint. The same exercise will be carried out in relation to organized ports, to gain more agility.” According to him, ANTAQ’s other priority is waterway concessions. There are six projects that have been approved in the General Strategic Grants Plan.
Collaboration between agencies
“Port access is indeed something that concerns us greatly. We have dedicated efforts to integrate the actions of the two agencies so that they can be coordinated,” said ANTT’s CEO, Rafael Vitale. The example he cited is that of FIPS (Santos Port Internal Railway), an association responsible for managing the operation, maintenance and expansion of the railway infrastructure that serves the Port of Santos (SP). FIPS is a partnership of leading companies in the railway sector in the country: Rumo, MRS and VLI. “ANTAQ is in charge of management, but we are always willing to collaborate and monitor the monitoring of investments,” he said.
“Another focus of attention is the movement of liquid bulk. Investments are already planned for preliminary work to enable new branches to have port access. This will bring about a tremendous revolution in fuel logistics and should be ready in around two years. This will result in a significant migration from road to rail transport,” he predicts.
Regarding highway concessions, the ANTT director said that the country currently has around 15,000 km of highway concessions, but that the forecast is to reach 20,000 km in the coming years. “We will end the year with seven highway concession auctions. Each new auction represents a robust injection of investment in logistics. This is the largest number of highway auctions in a single year. And the good news is that it will not stop there. At least 10 auctions are already planned for next year. We are also modernizing the contracts for the first concessions, to define a better defined risk matrix and more investments,” he revealed.
Access challenge
IBL President Ricardo Molitzas touched on a sensitive issue for any and all logistics operations: the complex situation of port access. “Today, 30% of all cargo movement in the country passes through ports, whether export or import. The challenge today is to overcome access problems in all modes of transport,” he stated.
According to him, the lack of agility compromises the efforts of regulatory agencies. “There is a lot of talk about PAC (Growth Acceleration Program), which has planned an investment of R$1.7 trillion. However, the first phase foresees R$3 trillion, of which R$300 billion will come from the federal government and R$700 billion from the private sector. Now, the private sector has enormous difficulty in making investments due to the lack of legal certainty due to the delay in processes, which has to do with complicated legislation that prevents agility.”
He cited the Port of Santos as an example. “When the Santos port authority planned, it was expected to reach 240 million tons by 2040. However, the port has been growing, on average, by 6.7% per year. In other words, we will surpass this mark in 2023, 10 years earlier than expected. Without dredging and other access-enabling works, we will certainly have more serious problems than we are experiencing today.”
Molitzas warned: “I fear that if we are not able to make these necessary investments, the Port of Santos, which has not been the largest in Latin America since 2017 — the largest port in Latin America today is the Port of Colón, in Panama — we will be doomed to a limiting dynamic.”
Another point he highlighted is the negative impact of the current tax policy on logistics operations, especially those that depend on multimodality. “The OTM (Multimodal Transport Operator) law dates back to 1998, and we are approaching 2025. When will we achieve multimodal transport? We have not been able to do so to date because we have different ICMS in each state and this tax reality prevents us from having a single document,” he concludes.
About Intermodal – Today, Intermodal has become a complete business platform for the logistics, cargo transportation and foreign trade sectors, generating business, relationships and delivering quality content in all environments: digital and physical, synergistically. It currently has a qualified database with over 150 thousand contacts of professionals in the sector and several channels, such as a digital platform, website, social networks and an exclusive content platform, with which it can promote brands, launch products, generate leads and carry out personalized actions to obtain a better return on investment, with greater focus and assertiveness.
About Informa Markets – Informa Markets creates platforms for industries and markets specializing in doing business, innovating and growing. Its global portfolio consists of more than 550 international events and brands, with more than 30 in Brazil, in markets such as Health and Nutrition, Infrastructure, Construction, Food and Beverage, Agribusiness, Technology and Telecom, Metal Mechanics, among others. Offering customers and partners around the world opportunities for networking, living experiences and doing business through hybrid fairs and events, specialized digital content and market intelligence solutions, building a relationship and business journey between companies and markets 365 days a year. For more information, visit Informa’s website or contact us by email institutional@informa.com.
